Burger Dogs | with Cheddar, Lettuce, Tomato, Onions, Ketchup, and Mustard | with Creamy Jalapeño·Barbecue Dressing | Sweet-Blackened with Sour Cream and Chimichurri SauceIT BEING SUMMER, AND ME not always having time to go out to eat—or even cooking something even remotely fancy—I keep foods in my fridge and cupboards that I can whip together pretty quickly, like hot dogs and hamburgers.

This morning, it turned out that I not only had hamburger meat but no hamburger buns, but it turned out that I had hot dog buns but no hot dogs.

So some mental silliness occurred and I decided to form my 80/20 ground beef into tubular forms instead of patties, then skillet grill them to medium rare temperature. One of the "dog burgers" got the classic treatment of lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, mustard, and cheddar cheese. The other was topped with a jalapeño-barbecue dressing, made by mixing some mayo with cider vinegar, worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, honey, liquid smoke, ketchup, mustard, garlic powder, chili powder, olive oil, salt and pepper.

First of all, FUN!!! The first bite of the "classic" was such a twist onwhat I was eating versus how I was eating it almost made me giggle. The classic cheddar burger flavors were there—very well represented, might I add!—nothing was lost in translation, and the novelty of eating it with a different set of manipulations was just that, a novelty, but an entertaining one at that.

The jalepeño·barbecue burger dog was a bit more of a revelation, if only in the dressing. I had never made that before, but after the first few bites of its smoky, tangy, sweet, and creamy properties—heightened by the acidic heat of the jalapeños, I immediately started to imagine all other future applications for it. I promise, this dressing will make a return!

It turned out that I had some ground beef leftover, just no more tummy room. But I made full use of it with my last hot dog bun several hours later when I decided to rub the ground beef with a "sweet" version of blackening spices, including black pepper, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, garlic powder, and paprika. I topped it with some cooling sour cream for the chimichurri sauce (from a recent Peruvian chicken delivery) I spooned over it.

The brown sugar in the rub helped the beef get extra caramelized on its exterior, giving it a very slight "crisp" to its bite, the hints of nutmeg, cinnamon and garlic highlighting the beef's own sweetness. The chimichurri added some earthy and bright floral notes—and a thorough kick of heat—finally and smoothly tempered by the sour cream.

As fun and enjoyable as these were to eat, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't go out of my way to make these in the future. I'm enough of a traditionalist to keep hamburgers in hamburger form and hot dogs in hot dog form. But it was fun to know that I could "switch it up" if I needed to. Plus, this endeavor was responsible for my new barbecue dressing, which I most definitely will be using often this summer.

But don't worry; you won't be reading about any "weiner burgers" any time soon.... ;)